|
One universe, one solar system, one Earth, one human race, one nation, one community, one family and one person.
By Tzy C. Peng, Managing Editor, Chinese American Forum.
The "Perception of One" provides a frame work for people to relate to one another in an understanding mindset instead of hostility.
The Big Picture
Like many people, I have always wanted to know answers to questions like: Who am I? Where did I come from? How do I fit into the family, community, country, human race, and indeed the entire universe?
While I was watching Science & Discovery Series on television, I saw pictures of our Universe, consisting of billions of galaxies; our Galaxy, consisting of billions of stars; and our solar system, consisting of Sun and planets that revolve around the Sun.
The constant voice of a narrator and the repeated use of the word, Our, made me realize that I am a part of our solar system, our galaxy and our universe, no matter how small and insignificant that part may be. My existence in the scheme of things gives "real meaning" to my life. Moreover, as an intelligent being within this universe, I have the "potential" as to how my life may affect this universe.
Watching more Science & Discovery Series, I saw wonders of nature about our Sun, our Earth, our ecosystem, and the evolution of the human race; I began to realize that not only do I belong to this Earth, but also I, as a member of the human race, and we, as the collective entity of human beings, have had a tremendous impact on the world evolution of the past, and
will have a profound impact on the future, our future, the future of our children, and of their children.
The real question now is: Which way shall we affect the future? Make our life better? Make this Earth a better place to live in? or vice versa? It is at this juncture, I believe, the question, and/or the perception, of "Oneness" inevitably becomes paramountly significant.
Of all living things on this Earth, human beings are different from the others by our acquired ability to have a constructive or destructive impact on nature. More importantly, the meaning of constructive and/or destructive depends on the scope of our motivation of one individual, one family, one community, one nation, one world, one human race, and one universe.
It is not an easy question to answer, because our motives are often clouded by how close we are related to others. Hence, "Respect your parents and love your children" and "Charity begins at home" have been the behavior code of civilization. People who are close call each other brothers and sisters. Proximity and blood-relationship do add significance to the spiritual and emotional bonds within the human nature.
Fortunately, human nature is not rigid, and is capable of extending itself to a larger and more universal frame work. All we have to do is to realize and visualize this extension in our mind and in our lives. And sometimes, we need a little help to realize and visualize this "intelligent extensionism."
My wife and I have had nice vacations every now and then. Once we were on an Alaskan cruise. As our cruise ship approached the Glacier Bay, we saw up-and-close glacier walls rising some 200 feet or more out of an absolute calm water. Then, suddenly, a towering section of a glacier broke away and fell into the water, producing a roar only nature can make. I was humbled, and I thought most passengers on the cruise ship were awed by such a majestic display of nature in action. Nobody was saying this, but I felt a strong sense of "Oneness" among us. For a brief moment, we realized that we were members of the same human family and a part of nature.
Another time, we were inside the Forest of Giant Redwoods along the west coast of the U.S. We came up to this 300 feet tall tree with a big hole in its trunk just above ground level. Millions of people have driven their car through this hole, and we were no exception. Our appreciation of nature came when we stood right by the tree trunk, looked up and tried in vain to find the top of the tree. At that instant, the difference between a tree and a human disappeared almost completely. I felt that this tree and I belonged to the same family, the family of natural environment; i.e. the realization of "Oneness" between humans and their natural surroundings.
Similarly, the close viewing of Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone Park ..... . Again and again, we were reminded that how much the nature with all living things, including human beings, is really one big family. We are the "One"!
On People
Let's examine the perception of "One" on a people level, and see how it works there. I came to the U.S. in 1952. Being a poor foreign student, I had no place to go, so I watched a lot of television. I was especially attracted to the popular situation comedies (sitcoms). One in particular, Father Knows Best (1954-1960), which depicted daily lives of a typical middle class white family. Obviously, I didn't belong culturally to that family simply because I came from a Chinese background with a Confucian tradition. Yet, I identified with the Anderson family in that TV sitcom.
Aside from the nice entertainment it provided, I realized that the moral values and the relations within that TV family are not really that much different from my father's family back home. Of course there were variations in degree, but never in philosophy. So here I was, poor with no close friends in a strange land. And yet, I felt perfectly at home every time I watched Father Knows Best. It didn't matter whether the father really knew best, I felt that that TV sitcom and I were "One".
My liberal attitude took me next to the All in the Family show from 1971 to 1985. It was funny, witty, and revolutionary in the1970s at least. I faithfully turned on the TV and set it to the CBS station every week and became a couch potato for 30 minutes. Actually, it wasn't the acting but the social philosophy behind the drama that attracted my undivided attention. By then, I had my share of discrimination in the U.S. Though the kind of discrimination I met was always subtle, and never life-threatening, I was nevertheless highly sensitized by the inequities in race relations.
As some of you may remember, that show was about a family in Queens, New York. The family consisted of a working class ultra-conservative father, Archie Bunker, a get-along "dingbat" wife, Edith, a liberal son-in-law, Mike or Michael, known as "Meat-head" to Archie, and a daughter "Gloria" who always sided with her husband Mike. So, it was basically trials and tribulations between the conservatism and liberalism in the 1970s. Yet, the show was appropriately named All in the Family.
I thought that a lot of people, like me, enjoyed the weekly episodes immensely, but may have overlooked an overriding fact that all these characters, diametrically opposite at times, were members of the Bunker family. Alas, we found the "One." Members of that family fought each other repeatedly. However, in the end, they always tolerated each other and understood each other. After all, it was "All in the Family."
The only problem was that all players were white. It was only natural that a black-oriented show called the
Jeffersons (1975-1985) was soon put on the air. In this show, all principle characters were black. Nevertheless, the kind of human nature portrayed in that show was almost in parallel with its white counterpart, All in the Family. In fact, if one ignored the apparent difference in race, one could easily conclude that these two shows were only one show, the show about two different social attitudes, conservatism and liberalism. But I would add one more observation, namely, human nature places both black and white people in "One" family. The perception of "One" lives on.
The truth of the "Oneness" of the human family was demonstrated again and again in I Love Lucy of the 1950s, and in a movie classic, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). In the I Love Lucy show, the story line was to poke fun at the social combination of Latinos and European Americans. Whereas in the Guess Who's Coming to Dinner movie, the black and white issues confronted each other among angry men of the old generation. In the end, the "Oneness" of humankind emerged only through the mediation and wisdom of two wives as well as the young couple, a black man and a white woman.
My first contact with Asians on TV was with the Hop-Sing character in Bonanza (1959-1973). Hop Sing was portrayed as a 2nd or 3rd class American who served the White master, the Cartwrights. The unjust Chinese Exclusion Laws were repealed in 1943, and China was a friendly nation to the U.S. during WW II. In any case, the days of Chinese wearing a queue have been long gone since the Chinese revolution in 1911. Yet, here I saw a Chinese character, unprincipled without self-esteem, presented to the American public, and I had nothing in common with that character. Either the TV producer was a moron on Chinese culture, or he/she simply did not regard Chinese as being equal to whites, deserving equal treatment with dignity. In short, there is a lack of "Oneness" between Chinese and White Americans.
Things did not get any better, when Bruce Lee was cast as an assistant, "not as a servant", to a white investigator in the TV series Green Hornet (1966). The series lasted only one season. Rumor had it that Bruce Lee was showing too much initiative, and was not compatible with the director's image of what a Chinese should be. This is the most ridiculous reason I ever heard. Perhaps the worst insult to Chinese Americans came when Kung Fu (1972-1975), the Chinese Martial Arts series was shown . The whole idea of Kung Fu was initiated by Bruce Lee, and the Kung Fu series was supposed to present Bruce Lee to the American Public. Why in the world would the TV producers pick David Carrandine, a white man, as the star, instead of Bruce Lee? Again, the only logical conclusion was that TV producers at that time did not think Chinese Americans were members of the American family. Of course, this did not mean that Chinese Americans simply accepted what the TV producers dictated. I know I didn't, and I still don't.
In all fairness, TV producers and movie makers in Hollywood of recent years have changed considerably, however slowly and reluctantly, their views about Chinese Americans,. The best example of that is the present-ation of a Chinese movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the American audience. For once, Chinese are shown as heroes and villains just like everybody else.
I was so pleased to read an newspaper article entitled "Genetically speaking, there is no such thing as race." (St. Louis Post Dispach, 11 May 2003, p. A1). The central issue is the argument whether or not the division of human race is inherited in our genes; i.e. the will of nature. This conclusion will prove positive if a different race has clear distinctions in the make-up of their genes. This is not about deficient or
abnormal genes among all human races. This is about definite differences in the normal genes. The results after extensive analysis is that there is not sufficient difference among all human races. The major conclusions thus far are:
1. In order to be considered different races or subspecies, two groups must have an
first score of at least 0.25 or 0.3. This means that two groups have differences in at least 25% to 30% of their genes.
2. Human groups differ at most by a score of 0.15, not enough to qualify as different races.
3. People from Fiji [South Pacific] look very similar to Central Africa Pygmies but the groups differ in only 8% of their genes. Both groups are more closely related to Europeans than they are to each other.
It appears that human races are artificial distinctions, not something endowed by nature and proven by scientific investigations. Yes, all humans are "one" indeed!
Personal Observations
When we adopt the concept of "Oneness", we are more likely to play fair and be compassionate to each other. Let us go back to the Golden rule, and ask ourselves: do we really believe "Do onto others as you would have others do unto you," The Golden rule is universal and has been described in many languages and different ways by all religions and philosophies, including Confucianism of the Chinese culture (see below). In terms of "Oneness", the golden rule implies that everyone is a member of one human family.
For me, I believe that "Oneness" or the "Perception of One" can pave the way or open the door for a rational dialogue from which people can learn from each other about their characters, like Confucius' saying:
1. Three people walking along, there is always the one that I can learn from.
2. Learning is a life-long experience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Golden Rule
(The Observer, P.O. Box 270214, St. Louis, MO. 63127).
Baha'i "Desire not for anyone the things that you would not desire for yourself"
Baha'u'llah (Gleanings LXVI)
Buddhism "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful" Udana-Varga, 5:18
Christianity "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" Matt 7:12
Confucianism "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you" Analects 15:23
Hinsduism "Never do to others what would pain thyself" Panchatantra III.104
Islam "Do unto all men as you would they should do unto you, and reject for others what you would reject for yourself" Mishkat-el-Masabih
Jainism "In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures our own self" Lord Mahavira, 6th century B.C.E.
Judaism "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowmen. That is the entire law...." Talmud, Shabbat 314
Native American "Respect for all life is the foundation" The Great Law of Peace
Sikhism "Treat others as thou wouldst be treated thyself" Adi Granth
Taoism "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and your neighbor's loss your own loss" T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien
Zorosatrianism "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself" Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5
|
